About

Your chance to fight zombies as a badass 1950s housewife is finally here! Aberford lets you step into the heels of a post-WWII suburban housewife fighting to save her family, friends, and city from a rapidly spreading zombie virus.

Grab your frying pan. Those zombies aren’t going to bash themselves.

Aberford uses the in-depth story telling of a graphic adventure game, like The Walking Dead, and switches to exciting brawler-style combat, like Assassin's Creed, when it's time to bash zombies.

Enjoy the rich story or just jump in and hit some zombies.

Aberford boasts two modes of gameplay:

Challenges let you and your friends unleash hell on the infected hordes, using a mix of combo attacks, intelligent counters, and crowd-control skills to get your point across.

Campaign mixes the combat into an amazing story where you’ll guide the conversations, manage the group dynamic, and decide what course of action our heroines will take in order to uncover the mystery of what happened in Aberford. Delivered in five chapters to help backers start enjoying it sooner.

With complex character stories, tricky moral choices, Cold War intrigue, and all the zombie-crushing action you could ask for, we’re making a game that you're going to love.

From the Aberford Community

This Kickstarter is critical to making Aberford because we're a small indie studio and we're still early in production. A large part of our production budget is coming from crowdfunding, and without your help, we won't be able to make this game. So please fund as generously as you can, and let's make Aberford happen together!

**Aberford is still in pre-alpha development. All technical and artistic aspects of the game will be greatly improved before beta-release. The amount being raised by this Kickstarter will fund Aberford through beta-release**

A Fresh Setting

Aberford jumps you right into the action and won’t let go. Rather than showing you some zombies and then skipping ahead a few weeks (or years), our game focuses on the immediate outbreak of the virus and the things people have to do in order to survive.

Dig into the chaos, confusion, panic, and terror of a zombie apocalypse, all while exploring the gender and race dynamics of 1950s Middle America.

When Peggy Whitman gets attacked in her home by an infected man, it’s up to her and her neighbors to find out what’s going on and put a stop to it.

Unleash your inner warrior with a wide array of makeshift weapons.

Fight through spacious suburban neighborhoods, picture-perfect parks and schools, a thoroughly modern downtown, and even the mysterious Edwin Voorhees Industrial Laboratory, where many of Aberford’s citizens are employed.

Explore beautifully stylized environments, and splash them with zombie gore.

Fantastic New Heroines

Aberford lets you play as a group of unique and interesting housewives, both for the sake of fun, team-based combat (like L4D) and to increase the depth of the story-telling. Each character has her own personality and combat advantages.

"This frying pan is covered with blood from men who tried to hurt me today. I have no problem adding yours to the mix."

Angry and argumentative, Peggy Whitman is a professional-girl’s-baseball-player-turned-unhappy-housewife who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Bonus to melee attacks

Bonus to thrown attacks

"My living room is a disaster and I am fairly certain at least one of them is bleeding on my carpet. It’s as if they don’t even care how hard it is to get blood out of a carpet!"

The master of everything a 50s housewife should be, and a former army nurse to boot, Betty Smith will do anything to protect her friends, even if it means getting blood on a perfectly good dress.

Bonus to movement speed

Bonus to damage with light weapons

"Hit 'em plenty hard the first time and you won't have to do it again. It's more efficient that way."

She may have lost her job as a riveter when the war ended, but Doris Baker is still tough as nails and ready to fight for her country and neighbors. There’s no challenge Doris isn’t up to.

Bonus to speed with heavy weapons

Reduced damage from incoming attacks

"I’m sorry, honey, Mommy was so busy unleashing hell that she forgot to make dinner."

A former scientist and current mother of two, Sylvia Hornberger’s sharp mind helps keep her co-slayers alive, although she may know more about what’s going on than she’s telling.

Bonus to utility effects

Reduced cooldown times

And more!

After developing our original cast, we decided to diversify and deepen the bench of zombie-fighting 50s women with a few expansion characters. The expansion characters play important roles in the main story and they'll be available as part of the challenge mode. You can read more about them here.

Thrilling, Dynamic Gameplay

Aberford’s campaign mode is divided between storytelling and fighting, allowing you to test both your reflexes and your brainpower.
During the storytelling sections, your choices affect:

the information that comes out during the conversation

the overall dynamic of the group

the course of action the group ultimately follows

And there’s a steady supply of quick time events to help keep you in the action.

Be careful: even small decisions can have major consequences when bloodthirsty zombies are roaming free.

When the real fighting starts, you’ll transition seamlessly into a third-person, over-the-shoulder viewpoint to take control of the battlefield.

Charge in headlong using melee combos and intelligent counters

Weaken and disorient your enemies using clever utility skills

Fight alongside your fellow housewives using the AI or another player using local Co-Op.

Switch characters during a fight if you find yourself in a sticky situation.

Use your speed, agility, and intelligence to your advantage.

In a challenging twist to the brawler format, all of your enemies in Aberford are bigger and stronger than you.

Fight powerful, infected-type zombies, not waves of shambling corpses

Earn each victory with cunning and tactics

Use realistic weapons and techniques (no magical chainsaws)

Switch between one-handed, two-handed, and ranged weapons to fight any zombies who stand in your way

Release in Chapters

Aberford's main story is divided into 5 chapters, allowing backers to enjoy the game in stages as it's released. Full development will take around two years, but backers will get to start playing Aberford much sooner than that with their beta access.

Wide Hardware Compatiblity

Aberford is being developed for PC, but we intend to port it out to Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, and Wii. And while we don't have final operating specs, we're working to keep the code architecture of Aberford lean and efficient. We want this game to run on as many systems as possible so that as many gamers as possible can have access to it.

Get a backer forum badge, an Aberford wallpaper, and our undying gratitude. (Get it? Undying? Because of the zomb...nevermind).

*Extra copies can be downloaded onto the platform of the backer's choice (pending platform development and ports)

A "Greetings from Aberford" post card signed by one of the characters, a thank-you note from Sketchy Panda Games, a digital copy of the Aberford design documents, unique backer-only clothing options for Sylvia, Norma, Mary, Alejandra, and Patricia

PLUS everything from all previous rewards, except STRATEGIC SURVIVOR.

A 2'x3' poster signed by the SPG team, the Flare Gun (a THIRD unique in-game weapon), a printed copy of the Aberford Zombie Defense Committee Survival Guide

PLUS everything from all previous rewards, except STRATEGIC SURVIVOR.

A THIRD digital copy of Aberford, a special Aberford Tee Shirt, printed and signed concept art by SPG, your NAME in the credits as a Citizen of Aberford

*Backer's choice. Backer must submit video or photographs of themselves (or the person of their choosing) to SPG for reference. SPG retains control over the final design to ensure stylistic conformity within the game.

*Economy class. SPG is willing to work with international travelers.
**Additional expenses are the responsibility of the backer.

Note: All port stretch goals are subject to the constraints of the platform. If a console maker blocks publication of indie games for a particular console, SPG will not be able to complete the port. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

What Happens When You Back Us

A Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, meaning that we won't accept any money unless we raise enough to make the whole game. And Kickstarter won't charge your credit card until we've funded and the campaign is finished. So you can safely back us knowing that there's absolutely no risk to you if we're unsuccessful (except the broken dreams, obviously).

Here's a look at where your money will go if you help fund us:

Everything we raise on this Kickstarter (minus taxes and fees) will go into making this game. And your funding really will matter, because we're not a rich studio with a nearly finished game that we're Kickstarting for publicity. This is a real indie project and we won't be able to make the game unless this Kickstarter is a success. You hold the fate of Aberford in your hands.

An Enthusiastic Community

Aberford has wonderfully active online community who've helped us refine our ideas and polish our design. Follow us on social media and see how the development process unfolded!

Aberford is a labor of love between us and our fans. Since we first started pitching Aberford last February, we’ve found thousands of eager gamers (and non-gamers) who want to see this exciting vision come to life. Whether you’re excited for the female-lead story or you just think it’ll be awesome to fight zombies as a 50s housewife, you’re going to love Aberford.

And backing this project gets you more than just one great game. We're committed to continue developing

High-quality, medium-priced games with broad hardware compatibility

Games that are fun and challenging for gamers of all sorts

Games that feature new and diverse characters

Games that tell unique, intelligent stories

Games that are always designed with the player in mind.

This is Sketchy Panda Games' first project as a team, but our members have worked on a wide range of games such as:

Lost Toys

Dreadhalls

Engines of War

Bust-n-Rush

Guidekick

Anchorman 2: Scotchy Scotch Toss

Whispering Willows

Bioshock: Infinite

Habitat

The Weaponographist

WWE 2K'14

Take a look and meet the team:

With over twenty years of programming experience, Parr has worked on dozens of applications and games and is thrilled to be making something as fun
and exciting as Aberford. Parr has spent the last 8 years growing a startup and is an expert at developing projects with small teams,
imited finances, and tight deadlines. Parr would spend most of a zombie apocalypse trying to get the internet back up. And God help any zombies that got
between him and the server hardware.

Laura generally spends her time on the project working on five different things at once without the help of a Time-Turner. These things include but aren’t restricted to the art direction itself, technical support, team management, project management,
Unity development and QA. Laura has had the pleasure of working on a variety of titles, some award-winning, as either a 3D artist,
QA or QA Lead. She has been part of the video game industry for five years and has worked on Lost Toys, Dreadhalls,
Engines of War, Bust-n-Rush, Guidekick, Anchorman 2: Scotchy Scotch Toss, Whispering Willows and Bioshock: Infinite.
More than likely, Laura would find a horse during the Zombie uprising and then spend her time bringing water and provisions to
whoever she can, while also tending whatever livestock survived in hopes that there can still be a future for the human race.

Amanda created the designs characters, UI, and graphic designs she’s sure you’ll love. She uses the technical skills she’s learned over her many years of art-making and love of horror themes to bring the “Aberford” world to life, bringing anatomy, color theory, and lighting knowledge as her foundation and imagination as her...imagination. She has worked as an illustrator for shirts for retailers such as Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters, and her concept art and illustration has been featured in indie games like Whispering Willows and Habitat, and publications including Savage Worlds and Gamers for Good. In a zombie apocalypse, Amanda would run a community garden, and would likely spend most of her time locked in a room with a knife muttering “not my blood!” like that one guy in that one War of the Worlds movie that came out a while ago.

Mike does every job, including 3D modeler, texture artist, storyboard artist, level designer, etc. Mike brings his experience in world building, and detail oriented polishing as a Production Artist (Power Rangers, Digimon, Mattel, Monsuno) and Art Director (Whispering Willows, The Weaponographist)to the world of Aberford. During the zombie apocalypse, Mike would be so absorbed in drawing, playing video games, and binge watching netflix that he wouldn't even realize that the world was crumbling around him........

Carol is the fresh-faced character animator for Sketchy Panda Games. As her first project, she is giving life to Aberford's inhabitants (and, uh, "liveliness" to its dead?). She is super excited to put to use years of tutelage at Animation Mentor by experienced minds from the likes of Pixar, Dreamworks and Industrial Light and Magic, as well as being able to work with a wonderful team of fellow CAs of the Game Developers Conference. Carol is a softie at heart and probably wouldn't survive a zombie apocalypse for long. She would try to be as helpful as she could for as long as she could, then if/when stuff hit the fan, ultimately decide that sacrificing herself insome way for the survival of others would not be a bad way to go.

Kat is responsible for creating the models and textures of all characters, including the 4-woman zombie-crushing team,
as well as the zombies. As an individual who is passionate about art and strives to create work that is compelling and immersive, she is excited to be working with Sketchy Panda Games on this project. In the unfortunate event of a zombie apocalypse, Kat would function clandestinely, gathering resources for her group while staying under the radar/in the shadows.

A fierce lover of storytelling (and games), Spikie tries to inject as much character as possible into her environments and designs. She’s been a freelance illustrator for the past 6+ years, intern at Hasbro (Girl’s Toy Design for Dreamworks’ Trolls), and is studying Entertainment Arts at ArtCenter. Spikie brings plenty of skill, experience, and enthusiasm, and is working hard to make this the best darn game it can be! In a zombie apocalypse, she’d probably die pretty early on, but if not she’d like to hole up in a super-walmart. Unless it has zombies in it. Is there still room to help with that community garden?

Pernilla has a background in Computer Game Development with a focus on Game Design. She loves experiencing games as an
average gamer, but then breaking down how the different elements contributed to the experience as a whole. Pernilla would attempt to
restore power in an apocalypse by trapping zombies on a giant hamster wheel. #GreenEnergy?

Adam is the instigator of this fiasco and the voice behind the popular Sketchy Panda Games blog. Adam brings a decade of start-up experience to the table, including marketing, budgeting, and project management. He’s terribly clever and would probably survive a zombie apocalypse with ease, but only after his multiple attempts to "rebuild society" had failed hilariously.

Closing shout out to everyone who helped us get this far! Our friends and families and the many, many people on Tumblr who helped us put Aberford together. You've all been fantastic, and we appreciated everything that you've done for us.

Risks and challenges

The biggest obstacle we face, as always, is production costs. We've done a lot of research, and we have a pretty good idea of what it will cost to make this game, but there are always unforeseen problems in video game production. Many of the tools we'll be using as indie developers are actively evolving and don't always have smooth pipelines for the type of production we're doing. We've tested and refined our process in these early months of production, but complications can arise, causing delays and costing money.

Running out of money before we're finished would be a serious problem in terms of completing Aberford, so we've planned out several contingency plans to make sure we can get to the finish line.

1 - We'll be running a pre-sales campaign from our website during production, in order to supplement our initial budget. We'll also be selling Aberford merchandise.

2 - We're releasing the game in chapters, which allows us to make regular pre-sale pushes and generate on-going revenue. It also helps demonstrate accurate production costs to banks and potential investors.

3 - The chapter releases also help ensure that, even if everything goes horribly wrong, you'll still receive some portions of the game to play through.

4 - We've also lined up personal assets to cover overages in the budget.

5 - We are working with bankers and private investors to have additional funds available in the event that the Kickstarter funds are insufficient to finish the game. However, securing these funds will be contingent on demonstrating a strong demand for the game (aka a successful Kickstarter).

Like our community, we REALLY want to see this game get made. So we're doing everything we can to prepare for any contingency.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

FASHIONABLE BRAWLER

A "Greetings from Aberford" post card signed by one of the characters, a thank-you note from Sketchy Panda Games, a digital copy of the Aberford design documents, unique backer-only clothing options for Sylvia, Norma, Mary, Alejandra, and Patricia

*Backer's choice. Backer must submit video or photographs of themselves (or the person of their choosing) to SPG for reference. SPG retains control over the final design to ensure stylistic conformity within the game.